Inquest: Creating a culture of safety among roofers

The family of Michael Maukonen, 19, of Windsor placed his photograph along with his hockey jersey and a puck for the five-person jury to see during a coroner’s inquest into the deaths of three roofers across the region that began in Chatham on Monday. (Ellwood Shreve/Postmedia)

CHATHAM – Roofer Michael Maukonen was wearing a safety harness when he fell from the second storey of a Windsor townhouse.

Tragically, his harness wasn’t connected to anything that would prevent him falling on Dec. 11, 2015. By June 30, 2016, the young Windsor man would succumb to the head trauma he suffered in the fall.

An inquest began at the Chatham courthouse on Monday to examine the circumstances surrounding the workplace deaths of Maukonen,19, as well as John Janssens, 73, of Wallaceburg, and William Swan, 56, of Inwood, near Petrolia, all of whom died from injuries suffered from falling while on roofing jobs.

With falls being a leading cause of workplace deaths in the construction industry, a major focus of the inquest is trying to figure out how to encourage more workers in the roofing industry to put their personal safety at top of mind when on the job.

Dr. Elizabeth Urbantke, who is presiding over the inquest, said the scope for the jury is to focus on specific approaches that could advance the adoption of safety behaviours by workers when working at heights.

Maukonen’s uncle, Fred Harris, was supervising the job when the young man fell from the roof while working for Dayus Roofing of Windsor. During his testimony at the inquest, Harris said he talked to his crew regularly about safety.

However, Maukonen wasn’t tied off to the roof as he was gathering up shingles and other debris to throw into a large bin on the ground.

Harris didn’t see his nephew fall.

“I figured he could have come across the roof to get rid of some garbage and lost his footing,” he said.

He also figured Maukonen forgot to hook up his safety harness.

Harris admits it is difficult to get roofers to always tie off and take other safety measures to prevent falls, especially if a roof isn’t too steep, because they can get too comfortable.

Frank Dayus Sr., who was in the midst of selling Dayus Roofing to his son Frank Jr., when the accident occurred, said that the worst day in the 99-year history of the company.

Even with the training the company provides, Dayus said it can be a challenge to get workers to use safety equipment all the time.

Dayus said a problem faced by many roofing companies is workers getting upset and quitting if an employer tries to discipline them for not following safety rules. Roofers, he said, can always go work for those who do jobs for cash.

Dayus pointed to this “underground economy” as being a big problem since people doing roofing jobs for cash are not burdened with the same employee taxes and insurance costs that a roofing company must pay.

Noting price is the primary concern for consumers, Dayus said there are constant requests to do cash jobs.

He believes homeowners who hire people to do roofing jobs where safety isn’t a priority get off “scot-free” if there is an injury.

Vincent La Tona, the Ministry of Labour health and safety inspector who investigated after Maukonen fell, said it’s difficult to put the responsibility on homeowners, who don’t know the safety regulations for working at heights.

He added homeowners rely on the company to be the expert in the area of safety.

“Safety has to be front of mind, an attitude it just has to be part of your day-to-day routine,” La Tona said when asked for thoughts on improving safety.

Frank Dayus Jr. told the inquest if there was more enforcement by the Ministry of Labour, including fines for workers not following required safety measures for working at heights, that would help create more compliance.

Even with the hiring of more inspectors in recent years, Filomena Savoia, a retired director of health and safety with the ministry, told the inquest there would never be enough to reach the 65,000 construction projects – more in boom times – that take place annually in Ontario.

She said reactive investigations into workplace incidents, such as deaths or serious injuries, also take precedent over doing proactive inspections.

She added these inspections could take weeks or months to complete.

The inquest will continue Tuesday when pathologist Dr. M.J. Shkrum will testify. He is expected to talk about the link between injuries from falls and pneumonia, which both Maukonen and Janssens suffered before dying.

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